Cuban Institutions and Groups

Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE)

A group of University of Havana students formed in1960 by Juan Manuel Salvat’s Trinchera groups as a wing in the university of the Movimiento de Rescate Revolucionario (MRR).  As the activities of such anti-Castro organizations as the DRE hampered the government’s efforts to control the university, it repressed their members through beatings, expulsion from the university, and …

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CONFEDERACIÓN DE TRABAJADORES DE CUBA (CTC)

A union (central) of trade unions established in January 1939 through the influence of Fulgencio Batista, serving as an umbrella for the then Communist domination of the unions.  It was given official status in 1942, and continued to be Communist controlled until 1947 when President Grau San Martín broke with the Communists, and his anti-Communist labor  minister …

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COMMITTEES FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE REVOLUTION

Block-to-block vigilante committees established in September 1960 to ensure internal security and public control, and counter the increased anti-government activity then becoming evident, “fighting against the counterrevolutionary class enemy.”  Originally, each Comité de Defensa de la Revolución (CDR) had the sole purpose of serving as an adjunct to the security apparatus of the Interior Ministry and the …

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INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE LA REFORMA AGRARIA (INRA)

The National Institute for Agrarian Reform was established May 17, 1959, to carry out the provisions of the 1959 agrarian reform law.  It was given sweeping authority to organize the collective cultivation of land and to regulate all matters related to agricultural output, landholding, credit, and trade.  Cuba was divided into 28 agrarian development zones, …

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ORGANIZACIONES REVOLUCIONARIAS INTEGRADAS (ORI)

A body created in 1961 by merging the Partido Socialista Popular, the Movimiento Veintiseis de Julio and the Directorio Revolucionario.  The objective was to unify these major anti-Batista groups into a united party controlled by Fidel Castro and Raul.  It was directed by old-time Communist Aníbal Escalante.  In 1963 the ORI was transformed into the Partido Unido de la Revolución …

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BOHEMIA

BOHEMIA.  An illustrated magazine, founded by Miguel Ángel Quevedo in Havana in 1908, which became Cuba’s most influential weekly.  In the 1940s and 1950s, when it was a consistent critic of Fulgencio Batista, this “revista enciclopédica” had a 200,000 circulation.  During the struggle to overthrow Batista, it portrayed Fidel Castro as a true Cuban hero in the model of …

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ASAMBLEA NACIONAL DEL PODER POPULAR

Under the Constitutions of 1976, the “National Assembly of the People’s Power” was called into session for its first meeting as the new legislature under speaker Blas Roca on December 2, 1976.  Headed by a speaker (presidente), deputy speaker (vicepresidente), and a secretary, it has one national deputy (elected for a five-year term) for every …

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ASOCIACIÓN NACIONAL DE AGRICULTORES PEQUEÑOS (ANAP)

The National Association of Small Farmers is led by a member of the Central Committee of the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC).  Its c180,000 members are independent farmers outside the system of state and collective farms.  Their farms constitute about 20% of Cuba’s total cultivated land.  They concentrate mainly on such specialized crops as tobacco, …

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